exhibit at the Winnipeg Art gallery with some folks last night to celebrate a friend's 39th birthday. I must confess no particular interest in Marilyn Monroe (not watching movies will do that to one), but there were a lot of good paintings in oil & Acrylic, as well as some good photographs. If I can find some good images I'll post links later. Gotta do some high-speed data entry now.

I bought a watercolour from the gallery where I have my semi-regular panpipe gig the other day. I'm feeling rather virtuous, because while I have lots of paintings (over 100, I'm sure), most of them have come from second hand shops, garage sales and the like, but this time the money will actually be going to the artist! I think you can still get a good idea of the brush strokes, even at the resolution it's at (I'm a brush-stroke sort of guy ).

Watercolour is a very difficult medium - you can't make mistakes! With oils, you can muck around for ever, or even scrape it off and start again; with acrylics you can just paint over something that doesn't work, but with watercolours, a brush stroke laid is a brush stroke played! I think this watercolour shows a high degree of mastery. (Yes, the subject matter is somewhat banal, but so what?) I love the brush work on the wings.

Well, I bought another piece of artwork yesterday & the money went directly to the artist.....

Nice piece; I like it.

I don't feel quite as good, though, about this purchase...

I had just been a dollar store doing some grocery shopping (72% cocoa chocolate bars, 100g ea - two for a dollar! woot!) & was walking down the street. Saw a native couple coming down the street. The man looked terrible - all red around his eyes and mouth - but something made me say hi. I ad my panpipes with me, of course, and he asked me some questions about it, then asked if I knew any native pieces. So I played one of the handful of native pieces I know for them. They were appreciative. He said he was a musician (guitarist) too, in addition to being an artist; we should form a band! I'd noticed he was carrying some sheets of paper that looked like art paper, and it turned out he was out on the street to sell a piece of artwork to get something to eat. I asked how much he was selling it for; he said $10. I gave him $40 & a CD. When we parted he said that he'd talk to me later 'my new found friend'.

I feel (and I said at the time) that I was taking advantage of him.... but what to do? I can't simply fix whatever is wrong in his life, and it's not as though I am a gallery owner and can sell this at a profit. I did a google search

and found out (not entirely to my surprise) that he is a known artist. So I am going to do a little enquiring and see if I can find anyone who can help him (if they can find him!). I don't really expect that he will call me back.... but he does have my name.... and my number's in the phone book.... so....

(It is such a joyful picture, it seems to me. Hard to reconcile it with the image of the man who painted it. )

I like it too Kami. Maybe it's a self-portrait and he's howling at the sun. Too bad he's in a rough way. We've had four homeless people turn up dead these past three weeks, and no foul play. Just too many years living with the bottle, it seems.

I like it too Kami. Maybe it's a self-portrait and he's howling at the sun.

A little tooling around on E-Bay revealed a number of pics by this artist with the same title ("Aroused"); they're all different, butwith a common theme. Mine's the best though. (*JJ: You've been listening to the news too much! )

Too bad he's in a rough way. We've had four homeless people turn up dead these past three weeks, and no foul play. Just too many years living with the bottle, it seems.

These days, it's so easy to go on the Internet and check out the KCRW website to see the artwork that I am talking about, but years ago when I started, that was definitely not the case. That's why I developed a policy where, instead of trying to describe an artwork, I would rather share with the listeners my thoughts and feelings about what I've seen.

In an ideal world, I would like to take all of you with me to artists' studios to experience their works firsthand - to see, to touch, and even to smell their art. Or, to invite you all to go with me to museums to see great works of art - and not just pass them by, but to slow down and actually spend some time taking in the beauty of the ancient Greek vase, and "listening" to the voice of Rembrandt in his self portrait, or almost inhaling the dizzy energy of a Jackson Pollock painting companies.

And one of the first LA artists whom I visited in her Venice studio was the amazing and ever-surprising Lita Albuquerque. She was pregnant with her first child and she allowed me to touch her belly, which in Russia is considered great luck.